Posts by uhuznaa

Re: Supermarket shelves

"I thought it was a bit of an overengineered solution but they must have found some benefit to warrant rolling it out."

The "nice" thing about these is that you can adjust your prices on the fly then, basically liquid supply&demand optimization. Some people are thinking this is a great idea.

Re: Apple products are often arguably cheaper than their competition...

Currently even a first-gen iPad sells for about $200. With all of 1024x758 pixels on 10" and 256MB of RAM.

Re: Repeating Windows mistakes of decades past...

Google probably just won't care for removable SD cards since no Nexus device has them.

When you're not paid for tinkering with such things a pure appliance like the iPad just makes more sense than anything else.

I will never get this kind of "this device, which is well designed and has great software, has no place anywhere because I hate Apple".

(Typed on a Nexus 7 that AGAIN deleted characters several lines above the cursor when trying to edit the last sentence. If Google won't have fixed all these editing bugs in 4.2 I'll just go and buy an iPad after all).

Re: Really? *Can* you use USB mass storage in WP8?

Since iOS 5 iTunes is purely optional.

Ebooks: Just use Dropbox, if both devices are on the same network it syncs locally. You also can fill iBook via FTP or email attachments. Other readers usually support their own ways of slurping up epubs.

I have both an iPhone and an Android tablet and automatic or rule-driven sync of photos and music is a huge advantage compared to manually dragging files around. The only advantage of doing it the old-fashioned way is when you want to initially dump lots of things onto the device, but after that all that file-dragging becomes very boring and tedious very fast. And of course if you want to be able to dump loads of music and ebooks from your mate's computer onto your phone.

Anyway, if Google would bother to come with a similar software to manage your phone or tablet including backups and restoring I would very much like that.

Re: "the inability to install desktop apps will protect users from many threats"

"But in reality, how many meaningful Windows threats ever needed to be installed like a desktop app, rather than just run as a simple executable (or, for the better exploits, opened and loaded like an ordinary document, with or without macros, or even just simple unauthenticated remote access buffer overflows ).

Those attack vectors are not in any way being blocked by being unable to install apps in general."

Of course they are blocked. These things won't run any unsigned code not coming from the store. App or executable or whatever.

And yes, I think it's a good idea. If you don't like it, get a proper computer instead of an appliance.

Re: Not enough?

There's also the OS on there and apps and their data and photos and whatnot. Put 3 or 4 GB of music on it (and many people aren't very good at pruning their music library and dragging files around all day) and it already gets very tight very soon. No, 8GB with no extension is just not enough these days for a smartphone. My phone has 16GB and I have to clean things up now and then already to make room.

Re: Apple Share Price ....

I don't care at all, but just to inject some facts: It does this every time. There's hype, people are buying Apple stock, then the facts are out, people are selling and then it slowly goes up again. Check back in a week.

Re: Battery

Ever had a smartphone? These things last quite a while in standby (which means you don't use all the screen and power) and not so long at all if you do something on them.

Re: popular with kids

Funny enough they didn't lose the mp3 player segment at all, even with hundreds of much cheaper players in the market against the good old iPod.

The iPod touch isn't a media player, it's basically a pocket-sized iPad nano. And for many people even iTunes support is a good thing (and judging from the interest in Android media players with some kind of iTunes sync support this isn't even limited to Apple fanbois -- dragging files around to manage your music is a bit like filling the tank of your car from pint-sized bottles you have to uncork first).

Anyway, if the leaked pricing lists from Germany a few days ago are any indicator, there will be a WiFi-only 8GB iPad mini for LESS than the iPod touch.

Re: Target market

Yes, if there is one thing Chrome OS is fine for than it's simple office tasks. But why a small notebook then? Make it a smallish all-in-one desktop with a 19" screen and this thing will sell. No problems with the requirement of reliable net access there either.

Yeah, but rubber boots are also less prone to damage than smart leather shoes and still people prefer leather.

This is no different as with many other things. Plastic cups don't shatter that easily, people still prefer glass and china.

It's only people who think that smartphones are nothing but tools or small computers or office machinery who think that plastic is the best choice. For most people though they are more like furniture or shoes or clothing or a nice car. Ugly, cheap plastic just isn't going to win them over.

Re: Innovation @uhuznaa

The difference between Apple and MS is that MS has/had about 95% of the market while Apple has much less. Apple just can't afford to be that lazy.

I totally agree by the way that Apple has shown a very visible lack of pushing iOS (and OS X) forward. I'm not so sure about the hardware, there's not much they could do here apart from small things. The iPhone in 2007 was a Big Bang and you can't have these every year.

Re: Ermmm

The 4th gen touch starts at £169.

Re: To stop us all posting the usual buy/no-buy/walled garden comments...

After using a Google Nexus 7 for a week now I can very well understand the allure of an iPad mini. It's a fabulous device, but it's more of a PC than an appliance. Great if you love to tinker around but less great if you just want a polished way of getting some things done without having to care about what's actually happening on a technical level.

Ridiculing people who have no interest in dealing with the computer side of all this is just idiotic.

Re: Come on, let's have a real advance ...

An e-ink screen with a screen refresh rate of twice a second if you're lucky? Not really?

Re: Apple has peaked

I don't want to praise Apple or the iPhone, but I'm sick of all this "style over substance" crying. Because style is important. People buy clothing, shoes, cars, furniture, houses, EVERYTHING by style and beauty instead of just by "substance". You're wearing rubber boots all day?

Smart phones aren't just tools or office machinery or computers. Not for most people. They're much closer to clothing and shoes: They have to do their job, but they also have to look and feel good and make you feel good. Not understanding that doesn't make you clever.

Re: A few points

"IIRC it hit M3 (far from sub orbital but impressive for an all composite aeroshell) and 10s of 1000s of feet altitude."

3,140 meters (about 1000 feet) altitude with 142 seconds of flight time was the record flight. This is basically nothing, this thing was a demo for vertical landing and nothing else. There's a lot of nostalgia going on with that thing. It surely was a nice project, but far, far away from a spacecraft.

Re: Go for it!

The Nexus 7 is a nice and unexpensive device (I'm typing on one right now) but it's not an iPad. It's a totally different thing. If you want an appliance the Nexus sucks, if you want a tablet computer the iPad sucks.

And why should Google/Asus make it even cheaper as it already is?

I'm not sure. Look what Steve Jobs said about Apple and "its attitude of arrogance" (his words) back in 2007 (shortly after returning to Apple) and its very hard not to agree with him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnO7D5UaDig&#t=600s

He's talking about the old Apple and the Mac of course, but every word fits perfectly at today's Apple and the iPhone. "Reinventing the wheel might end up 10% better but usually it ends up 50% worse" -- just classic.

Re: Excuse me...

SJ has never been shy on changing this mind.

Anyway, in 2007 phones still were getting smaller and smaller and compared to contemporary phones the original iPhone was a brick. Anything larger would have doomed it. Things have changed, people use their smartphones all day long for so many things that they accept even much larger phones now. Things change and was was right yesterday doesn't have to be right today.

Anyway, I hate Apple, I think iOS is getting stale, but the hardware looks and feels great. Funny enough most Windows-Phones also look rather good while Android phones tend to look rather gaudy. Why is this so? Offer me a Lumia with Android and I'll buy it...

Re: Native Google maps

There're loads of nav apps and even Google Earth already in the App Store.

The maps app sucks still.

Re: Financial advice...

And hating something you can't afford to buy makes you look like what exactly?

Low income is one thing, fighting about a few hundred bucks for something you'll use at least two years is another. If you can (and want to) afford that this doesn't make you ignorant.

Re: Well who's the next company to have sleepless nights?

That's what bandwidth caps are for. And the inability to get an Internet connection without a landline for much (or anything) less than both together.

These companies have heard the chimes very well and they're biding their time and while they're doing that they're very busy to set up ways to suck your blood in totally new ways. No need to worry for them, really.